Chapter Text
Tony groaned awake and hated the taste he recognized in his mouth, the purple dust of the Dark Dimension. The last thing he remembered was a flash of a spell and shouting at an event he was attending. He must have been openly kidnapped but the taste of the purple dust told him who had given the order.
Tony grumbled and forced himself into a sitting position in the dust of the planetoid he had been deposited on. A quick glance at the Sorcerers nearby told him that his kidnappers were new to Dormammu's service and still more human than not. He made a mental note to track down whatever magic group they had been a part of. The very fact that he was in the Dark Dimension so publicly meant that play time was over and he wouldn't be allowed to hide his family connection to act normal anymore.
"Anthony," Dormammu rumbled as he wandered over from whatever project he had been working on while waiting for Tony to wake up.
"Hi Uncle D," Tony sighed as he got to his feet and dusted himself off.
"You've done yourself some damage since my last visit, nephew," Dormammu commented thoughtfully, looking Tony over with an experienced eye.
"Well when you get kidnapped and tortured by terrorists who were originally hired to kill you they don't usually care about keeping you all that intact," Tony grimaced. "I got it fixed and then my co-leader of the team I was building to protect the planet from an invader decided to go nuts, betray me, and then try to cut me in half with his weapon that Howard made for him. I haven't gotten around to paying him back yet but it's on the list."
"I note that you are still pretending to date that friend of yours," Dormammu observed, sending an immediate spike of ice down Tony's spine. "She is a suitable aid and an acceptable placeholder until you have a serious partner to pursue. The young spider shows promise. I expect you to lay a proper claim on him within the decade least his training from you go to waste."
"Yes sir," Tony acknowledged grumpily. Secretly he was relieved that Pepper was seen as an acceptable placeholder or else Dormammu would have stepped in directly to correct things. The attention to Peter was concerning but not yet a risk from how it had been worded.
"Good," Dormammu said in satisfaction. "I have a task for you. One of the weakling Sorcerers on Earth tricked me into a deal recently. Your task is to capture, kill, or recruit him. We can not have such a wild card running around to interfere with things."
As he spoke a smaller scaled illusion of the time looped fight appeared in front of Tony showing him key pieces of what had transpired. The Sorcerer's damning words about acting as warden until Dormammu agreed to his terms rang out clearly to everyone present. The last thing they were shown was the deal that Dormammu struck and the return of the Sorcerer to earth.
Tony's gut clenched cold. He had recognized the Sorcerer and knew for a fact the man was ridiculously new to magic. Stephen Vincent Strange was too much of a Doctor the last time he checked to be otherwise. Tony wouldn't have gone out of his way to try to date the man while also protecting him from his uncle if he thought that Stephen would be willing to learn how to magically defend himself.
"Time limit? And can I have your newest human servants? They look like they're getting anemic and I can at least get them back up to healthy levels for usefulness," Tony requested politely.
"No specific time limit but the lack of resolution irritates me," Dormammu grumbled. "You may have them for yourself but bring me that Sorcerer. We have unfinished business."
"It may take a lot of time," Tony warned. "I will do what I can but there are limits unless you want me to rip through everyone and everything just to drag one man to you to throw at your feet. At that point it would be more trouble than it's worth."
"You know better than that," Dormammu pointed out disapprovingly. "Willingly or not you will bring him to me so that things between us can be settled."
"Gotcha," Tony said flippantly before turning to the human Sorcerers who were his uncle's most recent acquisitions. "Come on, boys and girls, we need to get back and start on things."
Dormammu watched them leave, more than a bit amused at his nephew's antics. He already knew that Tony wasn't going to approach things conventionally and was interested to see how things turned out. If he was lucky the Sorcerer that had so irked him would see value in Tony and help solve his nephew's restlessness. Should it happen Dormammu would be well satisfied to have gotten some beneficial use out of the Sorcerer in exchange for being tricked into skipping his planetary snack.
Tony glanced over his shoulder at his uncle exactly once before exiting through the portal he had cast as Dormammu returned to his current project. Having a Dark Lord for an uncle really wasn't the easiest thing to deal with.
~~~
Pepper stare in shock as her fried reappeared out of a new portal right in the lobby of Stark Tower where she was holding a press conference to cover for him.
"Anthony Stark!" Pepper yelled at him, ignoring the press for the moment.
"Sorry, Pep," Tony groaned as he led his latest servants through into the lobby.
"You better have a good explanation for this!" Pepper hissed, narrow-eyed even as she catalogued the fact that he had arrived in the open where someone was practically guaranteed to report it.
"Not my fault my bastard of an Uncle kidnapped me in broad daylight," Tony shot back. "The guy isn't even regularly on the planet. The last time I heard from him I was twelve. Twelve, Pepper! Twelve! The stuff from his side of the family was sealed for a good goddamn reason! But does he care about that after someone on Earth pissed him off? No!"
"Unc.... Wait, the one that wants to marry you off to your cousin?" Pepper asked in shock.
"Yeah, that one. I rescued some people he decided would make good servants but the magic involved means I have to keep them," Tony huffed. "I decided trying to get out of that meeting faster trumped landing somewhere discreet where we could all show up safely so I picked the lobby. I didn't expect you to be running a press conference."
"You got lucky either way," Pepper pointed out ruefully. "Besides this conference was scheduled three months ago. Remember?"
"Uh... Huh, okay, yeah, my bad," Tony agreed sheepishly.
"Just go get cleaned up and we'll sort out the paperwork for your newest strays. Did you break whatever you invented to make that portal?" Pepper asked with a smirk.
"Yup, totally broke it. Most of the elements needed aren't normally found on Earth so I never bothered trying to make one here," Tony shrugged, going along with the impromptu story they were weaving while trying not to lie.
Pepper waved him off and Tony waltzed right by the stunned press and visitors, ushering along his new servants towards his quick escape security door. A door which would lead them down to his private garage where they could take hi private elevator up to his penthouse and the guest level. It didn't take him long to sort everyone into rooms and order in some spare clothes as well as food for them but by that point Pepper was waiting on him with Happy Hogan.
.........
"I had argued hard enough for living like a normal human before going off to collage that Howard had sealed my magic. That was part of why he had me grabbed so publicly, Uncle Dormammu unsealed my power. That's why I haven't been able to use it until now," Tony explained tiredly. "If Howard hadn't done that I would have just portaled out of any number of situations over the years. When I arranged to protect someone though it was through others casting the magic. Once or twice I hired someone and had to kill them afterwards to keep them from betraying me or to satisfy whichever magic they had used to the correct level. I hated it but I valued the person I was protecting far more than the idiot using incomplete sacrificial magic so I would complete the magic since they refused to. Leaving stuff like that incomplete is dangerous anyway."